HK foreign-currency reserves up $7.1 bln in April

Special
Report: Global Financial Crisis

HONG KONG, May 7 (Xinhua) -- Hong Kong's official foreign- currency reserve
assets rose to 193.4 billion U.S. dollars in April, up 7.1 billion U.S. dollars
on March, the Monetary Authority of Hong Kong said on Thursday.

Including unsettled forward contracts, foreign currency reserve assets
stood at 194 billion U.S. dollars. The total foreign-currency reserve assets
represent about eight times the currency in circulation, or 45 percent of Hong
Kong dollar M3.

Hong Kong is the world's seventh largest holder of foreign currency
reserves, after the Chinese mainland, Japan, Russia, China's Taiwan, India and
South Korea.